A blade soaked in blood
by Starbreaker195
Summary: At the height of his insanity, Dimitri draws his blade against his former teacher... (ONE SHOT)


**Summary:** At the peak of his insanity after Rodrigue's death, Dimitri draw's his blade against his former teacher…

"...What do you want?" Dimitri asked the man standing in his path, seemingly unbothered by the nights heavy rain. Then again, that unbothered, blank expression was the only thing that could still get under Dimitri's skin in a chilling way.

"Where are you going?" The steady reply came from Byleth, who even now in his concern for the blonde, one-eyed king was keeping notice of the lance in his right hand and the sword sheathed at his hip.

Dimitri hated being questioned, and in his explosive state rage flared up and filled every atom in his body. "It doesn't concern you." He responded, his tone filled with malice.

That was all the answer Byleth needed, he walked towards Dimitri slowly and purposefully. "Do you think what your doing is going to change things? It won't lay the dead to rest, those voices in your head aren't real Dimitri."

Dimitri snapped. "Get out of my way now!" he bellowed. "I… I will kill her! The dead will have their rest one way or another!"

Byleth raised his voice, a rare occurrence even despite his slowly unlocking emotions. His voice carried the weight of a thousand stabs of Dimitri's spear. "Killing her won't appease the dead! It will just create another ghost inside your head. Think about Rodrigue, do you think this is what he would want? For you to kill yourself trying to kill Edelgard?"

"Dont you dare speak his name!" Dimitri raised his lance "Silence yourself now or I'll kill you too!"

Byleth stared down Dimitri with a blank unrelenting gaze. And shook his head. "You can't continue down this path Dimitri. I won't allow it. Your a better man than… whatever it is your becoming."

Dimitri snarled, then raised his lance into his combat stance. "Fine then! Once I kill you, I'll cut down Edelgard!"

Byleth drew the sword of the creator as Dimitri flung toward him, jumping out of the way of a strike that cracked the ground where he previously stood, dashing forward, Byleth swung his blade down in response, Dimitri stood his ground and blocked his former teacher's strike, the shock-wave making the blonde's arms tremble from the sheer force, even now it seemed, the professor was his better. That enraged Dimitri as well.

"Death is the end professor." Dimitri said after attempting to stab Byleth with his lance as a counter attack. "And soon it will be yours." a sick smile grew on his face on his face, and Byleth grit his teeth in frustration, he was losing him. He had to think of something fast.

"You need to learn to live with and for yourself Dimitri." Byleth said this as he delivered three hard strikes to Dimitri, who blocked and dodged all of it. "Those ghosts are-"

"A consequence of the blood I've spilled!" Dimitri lunged forward with his lance in a wild attempt to stab the professor but Byleth sidestepped out of the way, bringing his blade down on Dimitri's lance, shattering it into several pieces, the shrapnel burst into several directions cutting into Byleth and Dimitri, Byleth then brought the flat of his blade and smacked Dimitri hard across the face of his former student, flinching a little as the prince slipped on the wet ground and fell.

Byleth pointed his blade at the downed Dimitri who was staring back at him with equally dead eyes. "...No matter how much lingering regret a person has, when they die the become powerless, No wishes for revenge…. No way to seek it out. Doesn't it fall on the living to fill out their burdens professor!?"

"Dimitri…" Byleth sighed. "I regret things too."

The broken king's one good eye widened. "Th-then you understand! You understand that-"

"Bernadetta… Leonie... Raphael... Ignatz… Lorenz and Ferdinand. All of them my students… all of them I killed while sitting by and hoping that you would change back on your own because you had the rest of the class beside you. And for the rest of my life their names will be etched into my memory. But I won't let it destroy me Dimitri."

The rain began to intensify, and Byleth could _swear_ Dimitri began to shed tears. "Live for yourself Dimitri, the dead is no more your burden to carry than it is mine. There is another way, there is always another way."

The rage in Dimitri's eyes gave way into a grief so profound it affected even Byleth, and he found himself tearing up a little as Dimitri lunged into his arms and broke down into incoherent sobs.

"You may believe that those who died won't lose their hold on you… But that isn't the case, because when you feel lost and broken. And feel like your about to fall to the dark again, I'll drag you back to the light again and again." Byleth said to Dimitri.

_My student…_

**A/N: This is my very first attempt at a one shot, and im sure it's abhorrent but I decided to post it regardless because… really why not. If you liked it leave a comment. I hear they're cool.**


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